MTG Salvation

EDIT: Ignore the typo in the title!

I'm building a mono-black EDH deck, and was originally going to run Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon as my commander for his ability to come out of nowhere and one-shot someone with some equipment on him, but figured the "Infect" ability (despite being the only infect creature in the deck) would draw a LOT of hate, so I opted for another OHKO general that would be looked at and them underestimated in the format with Phage, the Untouchable. I included every card possible that'll allow me to bypass her drawback, and then filled the rest of the deck with strong black cards to form a sort of control-styled EDH deck for multiplayer. Problem is that I added too many cards, and don't know what to take out!

Looking for any input on cards to remove as well as some other general information and advice to how the deck looks as-is and what improvements can be made to the list.



The goal of the deck is to play a lot of removal and draw in order to set up the pace of the game in my favor, hit key targets to play a little bit of politics when needed to avoid suspicion and early assaults towards me, then set up a ton of mana to drop Phage + equip her with something and swing for the kill or set off a massive Exsanguinate and kill everyone at the table at once. There a lot of mana enhancers in the deck such as Nirkana Revenant, Crypt Ghast, Caged Sun, and lands like Cabal Coffers and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. Getting even just 1-2 of these in play can set me up quite well for mana and put me ahead of the rest of the table and propel my plan faster than normal. I know as soon as Phage hits the table that I'll become Enemy #1, but I'll hopefully be able to kill some amount of the slightly less-prepared players by then before they can really react much.

So the only cards in the list that allow you to actually ever cast Phage are Platinum Angel, Torpor Orb and Sundial of the Infinite?


It wouldn't be worth ever even trying to cast Phage. Someone will just hold back removal and respond to you casting him by removing either the Angel, the Orb or the Sundial. If its the Angel or the Orb you lose the game, if its the Sundial you have to pop it then try again later (if it doesn't get removed first). I wouldn't ever count on having all 3 or even 2 out at once. All three are the type of cards that eat removal so fast they rarely make it through one turn cycle (at least in my meta).

Either he will lose you the game virtually every time or you will end up just running him as a figurehead. Unless you can find more ways to cast him.

You could run Dash Hopes then counter your own Phage when you cast him. Choose to leave him in the yard rather then put him to the command zone then find some way to shuffle him into your library from the yard. Or find a card that recurs him from graveyard to hand.

Honestly, I just don't see any way that Phage actually ever works so you're basically just playing mono-black control with alternate win cons and a dead general. I'm not sure how interesting, fun or successful that will be for you. If you want a live (aka useful) mono-black general that will still be underestimated I might think of someone like Cao Cao, Lord of Wei...However, I don't know how people view him.

EDIT: If you do want to keep playing Phage you need more ways to cast him. I found this list that has 4 or 5 ways of getting him out listed near the top:

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=428646